340W: A Children’s Book about Racism in a General Store

This was a book used to discuss prejudices and racism in 5th grade classrooms in the late 90s. The characters in the book go to a general store and are treated poorly by others in the store. The N word is used many times throughout the book. I recall many Mildred D. Taylor books being used in this curriculum, so this could just be a specific chapter in one of her books, rather than the entire book? Perhaps The Friendship? I recall a specific young character in the book really wanting a piece of hard candy from the general store!

1 thought on “340W: A Children’s Book about Racism in a General Store

  1. Tracy

    It’s been a long time since I last read Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, but I think I remember a scene in that book that was like that, with the server in the store ignoring the black kids until after he’d served all the white customers, even though they’d been waiting longer. Then, I think the father of a snooty white girl in the story shoved one of the black kids into the street just because he was mean and weird like that. I don’t remember there being a specific reason for him to do that, he was just an awful, disturbing person, and they just happened to cross his path. At least, that’s what I remember from when I was a kid.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.